Orchids

A man delivering a beautiful orchid in my office made me leap for excitement to read the card that comes with it. Thinking how Allen (my fiancée) put in writing his everlasting love for me makes me obnoxious for a while. I took a picture and thought for a title I am going to put once I uploaded it in facebook. I was thinking of how orchids will be the symbol of our love.

Well the feeling died down and was replaced with bitterness as soon as I have read that the orchid is for my boss and not from Allen. In the Philippines when another man gave a flower to another man it is defined as weird, more so with the whole flowering plant with a dedication on a heart shape card. Since my first encounter with the plant is embarrassing I never laid eyes on it. I did not care if it will be watered or not. It was like an eyesore for reminding me on how I assumed and how I embarrassed myself.

Days passed and the plant started to look like it is dying. I blame my boss for smoking like a chimney and inviting guests who smokes more than he does. I feel bad that the plant has to meet its end that way so I decided to make the plant feel special at least. Everyday, I would come to the office early to personally take care of it by watering it and spraying malt on it. My Mom said orchids love malt and they are inspired to produce flower when you sing for it. The watering and spraying part is easy but the singing made me feel like I will be committing euthanasia.  So I skipped the singing part. In my surprise, the plant regained its vigor and produced four more small plants and five branches with flowers. I also noticed that I do not get rhinitis even though my boss keeps on smoking. I remembered that plants turns carbon dioxide into oxygen. In this case I almost though that the plant is the beneficiary of my efforts, well it did me good to.

Looking at the flowering orchids made me realize how little effort I made to reach out to some people because of a not so pleasant first impressions and how some people magnified my biases. It is funny how I have enclosed myself in my comfort zone lately. It is also humbling experience to accept that I have a potential to give up loving someone because things did not went well the way I expected it. I’m again reminded that ‘Love comes from a single act of care that leads to a loving and healthy community’. After all, orchids is my symbol of love.

the actual orchids of Sis Piya

by Piya Yang, SFC Qatar